Study: Brands would increase online spend if metrics were better

A lack of solid insight into consumer behaviors, intentions and purchasing power may be holding back the online advertising spend, even as a record ad spending year is wrapped up. Although brands spent an online advertising record in 2010 and in Q1 2011, a new report out from Forrester Research and Adometry indicates that brands would push even more ad dollars online if the metrics were better.

62% of advertisers say they would spend more online if metrics were improved
47% say they would spend more, in particular, on display ads
61% of advertisers are looking into 'attribution analysis' to better understand consumer behavioral

"We believe Forrester's findings clearly confirm what many have suspected - advertisers want better ways to measure how their investments will pay off before sinking more dollars into display advertising," said Paul Pellman, Adometry CEO. Adometry commissioned the study. "Improved ad targeting and technologies like cross-channel attribution measurement will play an important role as interest in display advertising continues to grow."

Display, specifically the enhancements made to display like clickable banners, in-banner video and other rich media attributes, have pushed the display spend up over the past year. However, as brands realize that seeing an ad may not lead to an immediate click or purchase, they want to know what consumers are doing post-impression. Are those consumers querying a search engine, are they visiting a website through direct navigation, are they asking friends about products on social networks?

These are the types of questions that brands want answered and the types of questions that metrics firms need to begin answering if the online ad space is to continue to grow.